


Moving Seats

by camichats



Series: Imagine James and Sirius Prompts [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Getting Together, M/M, Marauders' Era, Pining, Slytherin Sirius Black
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 17:27:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11468244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Sirius is okay in Slytherin. Sure he hates the people and doesn't precisely fit in all the time, but it's fine. So why is it that James Potter is suddenly showing an interest in him?





	Moving Seats

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: “Can you write a fic for the prompt "James keeps moving his seat so he can sit next to Sirius but keeps getting told to move back to his original place until the teacher gives up and lets him sit there"? Also not to be annoying but can it include someone saying "James only wants to sit there cause he fancies Sirius"?”
> 
> Originally posted on [tumblr](https://imaginejamesandsirius.tumblr.com/post/162820760095/can-you-write-a-fic-for-the-prompt-james-keeps)

Sirius figured his one regret in life would be letting the Sorting Hat put him in Slytherin. The Hat had said he would do well in Gryffindor, but… Regulus. Regulus was to be in Slytherin, determined not to give Walburga any more to criticise about him than she already had, and Sirius wasn’t going to let his little brother be in that house alone. If Reg could sacrifice Ravenclaw, Sirius could sacrifice Gryffindor-- and the possible friendship of one James Potter. They’d gotten along on the train, and Sirius believed they could’ve gone far, had he made a different decision. But he hadn’t, and he refused to dream of ‘what could have been’.

It wasn’t a secret that James didn’t like Slytherins. Sirius tended to agree, _especially_ after sharing a house with them.

Which is why, in Arithmancy seventh year, he was completely confused when James plopped into the seat next to his. Sirius gave him an uninterested glance even though he wanted to stare. “Aren’t you on the wrong side of the classroom, Potter?”

“And miss this view?” James said with a cheeky grin that Sirius could just see from the corner of his eye. “Not a chance.”

“Professor Giles assigned us seats as the start of the year,” he pointed out. “You haven’t cared about the view the past two months.”

James shrugged, unbothered, and didn’t move.

Sirius tried to act like his presence wasn’t affecting him. He was pretty certain he was successful, but he’d been lusting after James for the past year, give or take a month. He’d spent the years before that steeped in denial, playing off any and all interest as a rivalry. It was only after he’d become an animagus-- just to prove he could-- that he realised no one would go that far _just_ for a rivalry.

So yeah. If this were a dream, they’d be fucking on a desk right now. Or maybe they’d suddenly be in James’s bunk in Gryffindor Tower cuddling (because he had that dream as often as the wet ones).

Professor Giles walked in and started talking immediately, like she usually did. She always made them work with a partner, assigned at the beginning of the year and solid no matter what. She turned to Sirius and James in the middle of her opening rounds around the room, then stopped mid-sentence. She frowned at James. “You’re not supposed to be there, go back to your seat.”

“Snape isn’t here today, neither is Remus, and we _do_ work in pairs Professor…”

“That doesn’t make any kind of sense.” It really didn’t, but Sirius was aching to argue the point so James stayed beside him. “Go back to your seat.”

James heaved a put-upon sigh and moved, but it did make Sirius wonder where Severus was and why. Severus was far from his favourite person in the world, but he made an excellent work partner. Lupin was gone for the full moon of course, but Severus never missed a class unless someone hexed him to the Hospital Wing (something Sirius had been guilty of from time to time), but that hadn’t happened in years. Curious.

James reached his usual seat, seemingly unflustered, and winked when he caught Sirius’s eye. Sirius scrambled for his traditional response of keeping a blank face and raising an eyebrow. He hoped his cheeks weren’t visibly pink-- it would ruin the effect. James turned to face Professor Giles a moment later, so it must have been fine. Sirius allowed himself a few seconds to look at him, wondering how much messier James’s hair would look in the morning than it did now.

Sirius, in an effort to be nice, took notes for Severus about their work that day. Admittedly, it was less about being nice, and more about trying to sweeten Severus into telling him why he was gone (and to keep himself from staring at James all period), but it was a good gesture nonetheless.

Severus, however, eyed him suspiciously when Sirius found him in the common room and held out the notes. “What’s in it for you, Black?”

Sirius rolled his eyes even though he was secretly grateful someone in this place was straightforward. “An explanation of where you were, unless you’re skiving classes now.”

Severus glared at him and snatched the notes, adding a begrudging, “Thank you.” He looked supremely uncomfortable, then said, “I was hit by the Whomping Willow.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow-- the one emotion he was allowed in the lovely house of snakes. “Unless you’ve taken leave of your senses, you know better than to get close to that thing.” Severus gave him the stink-eye, so he shrugged and left. “Whatever, mate.” If Severus wanted to be needlessly suicidal, that was his business. Hm, maybe Reg would be up for a game of Snap.

* * *

The next time they had Arithmancy, James sat in the seat beside him again, even though Sirius knew for a fact that both Lupin and Severus were coming to class today.

“What are you doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” James said.

“Yes. What isn’t obvious is why, but my brother says it’s rude to ask people why they do the things they do without leading up to it.”

“I didn’t think you cared about being rude.”

Sirius grinned internally, wanting to squeal like a little teenager when their first crush complimented them. It wasn’t a compliment technically, but James said it with a challenging gleam in his eyes that Sirius wanted to permanently bring to light. “Slytherins being rude to you tends to lead to being hexed.”

“I haven’t done that at all this term,” he protested. Sirius raised an eyebrow, and James half-smiled. “Well I haven’t gotten caught. And it wasn’t because they were being rude, they were being arseholes.”

“Most people think you’re an arse.”

“I said arsehole, not arse, there’s a difference. Are you saying you want to hex me, Black?” he asked-- there was no other word for it-- teasingly.

“I will if you don’t move,” Severus said from behind him.

James swung around to face him, face completely unbothered though his posture told a different story, and gave him a wide smile. “Come now, Snape, I thought we were past this.”

“James, just leave them alone and get your arse over here,” Lupin called from where their seats were.

As much as Sirius liked James, he really wished that he could have avoided talking to Severus. It put him in a bad mood and he was spitting venom for the entirety of class.

* * *

Sirius was about ready to go sit in Lupin’s seat just so that James and Severus would stop interacting. Severus had gone from prickly but almost likeable to completely intolerable over the last few weeks. Sirius understood, in a detached sort of way, that Severus had every reason to hate James for past events, but it didn’t make him any less annoyed about the situation. Pettigrew sure as hell wasn’t helping matters, always taking the piss at James for some reason that only the three Marauders were aware of.

The point is, Sirius was two classes from declaring himself fit for St. Mungo’s Mental Ward. So, being the completely rational person he was, he went to Professor Giles and begged for her to let them switch partners.

“Mister Black, I empathise-- _truly_ \-- but I don’t think it would a good idea. If Mister Potter is this enamoured with you across the room, I fear what it would become as class partners.”

_Enamoured? Obsessed, maybe, though only Salazar knows why._ Sirius very carefully shoved the part of him that was repeating ‘enamoured’ into a corner to deal with later. “He’s disrupting class, you have to tell him every day to go to his seat, if anything this would help you.”

Professor Giles sighed heavily, the weeks of James’s behaviour clearly wearing on her. “If both Mister Snape and Mister Lupin agree, then fine.” She threw her hands up, as if to absolve herself of any consequences. Not that that would help any of them in the classroom if the situation went south.

Severus kicked up a fuss when he asked, but Sirius had no idea why. “I know for a fact you hate Potter more than Lupin.”

“Why do you want to switch, Black? Want to cozy up to _Potter_?” he spat.

Sirius rolled his eyes even though, yes, he was rather hoping to ‘cozy up’ to him. “I want to stop sitting next to someone who’s frothing at the mouth with hatred. It get’s my parchment all messy.”

Severus sneered at him and Sirius was seriously considering relegating him back to last-name only interactions.

“Is that a yes?”

“Fine.” He all but shoved Sirius away, but that was okay; he had agreed.

* * *

Sirius took a couple hours to work himself up to talking to Lupin. Asking him to give up his best mate as a class partner for someone who openly hated him wasn’t going to be an easy sell. He walked to the table Lupin had claimed in the library, hoping this went smoothly. “Lupin?”

He eyed Sirius hesitantly. “Black.”

“You have a minute?”

“Er, sure.” He set his quill down, clearly understanding that this wouldn’t be a simple conversation.

Sirius slid into the seat across from him. “So here’s the deal. Severus hates Potter and every time they have to exchange so much as a look, his mood is ruined and I spend the next two hours utterly miserable because of it.”

“So you want me to talk to James and get him to stop,” Lupin guessed.

Sirius opened his mouth, then paused and closed it again. “That… is a much better idea than I had, let’s go with that, yes.”

Lupin shook his head ruefully. “It would be a good idea assuming I hadn’t already tried, _and_ assuming my berk of a best mate listened to me.”

Sirius sighed. “It would’ve been so easy though.”

“Nothing with James is easy,” he said wistfully. “Just once I wish he wouldn’t dig in his heels for the most meaningless things. Although, if you were to ask him, he would claim they were of the utmost importance. Sorry, what was your idea?”

“Switching partners. It would, unfortunately, leave you having to deal with Severus, who seems to hate you for some stupid arse reason he refuses to share.”

Lupin shrugged. “I’m used to dealing with people that hate me, it’s fine.”

“You’re agreeing?” Sirius asked, in disbelief.

“Did you expect me to say no?”

“A little. Also, I doubt that there are many people who hate you. Why would they?”

“They have their reasons,” he said cryptically.

Sirius took a quick glance around-- they were alone-- and decided to take a chance. “Severus knows you’re a werewolf, doesn’t he?” Lupin froze, but Sirius continued on. “He is the sort of person to be bothered by that. It would also explain his Whomping Willow incident the other day. He never was overly bright.”

Lupin was clenching and unclenching his hands. _Good job, Sirius_ , he thought sarcastically, _make the bloke hate you instead of letting him know you don’t give two shites, and right after he does you a favour, too. Really, excellent._ “And what are you planning on doing with that information?” he asked in an overly controlled, calm tone.

“The same thing I’ve been doing our entire time at Hogwarts: keeping it to myself. C’mon, what could I possibly do with it?”

Lupin thought on it, then nodded in acceptance. “You don’t seem scared,” he observed, relaxing a bit.

“You’re not the first werewolf I’ve met, and you don’t look like you’re ready to haul off and curse me at the drop of a hat, so. Besides, I’d like to think that if you _were_ the murderous sort, I wouldn’t be at the top of the list.”

Lupin leaned back and looked at him appraisingly. “You’re an odd sort, Black.”

“Talk to Reg if you want someone to commiserate with, he’s had to deal with me his entire life.”

He chuckled, and muttered something under his breath.

Sirius frowned, though it didn’t sound like anything negative. “What was that?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. I’ll be Snape’s partner in Arithmancy,” he said, going back to his work.

“Thanks.” Sirius left, slightly puzzled, but overall pleased with how it went.

* * *

It was only as Sirius entered the classroom that day, that he wondered if Lupin had told James what happened. The answer was a resounding yes, given that James bounced into the room and immediately started talking to Sirius about how he owed Lupin so bad for this, but that it was totally worth it for this position in the classroom.

“You aren’t fooling anyone, James, you just want to sit there because you fancy Black,” Pettigrew said, none too quietly from his own seat across the room, next to Lupin.

“Sod off Peter!” he called, but stopped talking, which had to have been the goal because Lupin and Pettigrew exchanged meaningful looks. Oh Merlin, was James blushing?

Sirius tried to pay attention to what Professor Giles was saying but couldn’t focus. James fancied him? If it wasn’t true, he wouldn’t have reacted the way he did. ...Probably. Professor Giles finished, letting everyone start on the assignment. The room filled with chatter, letting Sirius ask James, “Do you actually fancy me or was Pettigrew taking the piss?”

“Peter’s talented. He did both.”

Yep. Definitely a blush. “Is this how you pull? Indirectly make them miserable for a month then have your mates ask them out?”

“No. Besides, Peter didn’t ask you out,” he mumbled.

“If he didn’t, and you aren’t, does that mean _I_ have to ask _you_?” James looked at him, dumbfounded and hopeful. “Not sure how I feel about that, James. I’m arm candy; I shouldn’t have to do anything.”

He smiled, bright and wide-- far too cute for such a dork, Sirius was certain. “Fair enough. Sirius, would you like to go on a date with me?”

“When? And where? C’mon mate I’m a catch, I need specifics if I’m tying myself down,” Sirius teased.

James laughed and- well. They spent the remaining hour and forty-five minutes of class planning a date that consisted of breaking eight or so rules instead of doing their classwork.

**Author's Note:**

> This is from a prompt driven blog at [imaginejamesandsirius](https://imaginejamesandsirius.tumblr.com) on tumblr! Drop by, send in a prompt if you want more ;)


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